Prosthetic devices can replace or augment body components or portions of body components that cannot be regenerated or are no longer functioning properly. Examples of prosthetic devices include heart valves, pacemakers, spinal implants, dental implants, breast implants, collagen for soft tissue augmentation, and orthopedic devices, such as artificial knee, hip, and ankle joints.
Some prosthetic implants can include a porous scaffold material, such as to provide structural support to an orthopedic implant, to fill a void in bone reconstruction or joint repair, or to provide a structure for permitting ingrowth and attachment of tissue. Porous scaffolds can be used to provide structural support to a patient's tissue, such as bone tissue. Porous scaffolds can also be used to provide an attachment structure for a patient's tissue to couple or attach, such as via ingrowth and bonding between the patient's tissue and the porous scaffold.